# Gerard (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/gerard/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | not recorded |
| Meaning | “spear”, “hard”, “brave” |
| Pronunciation | /d͡ʒəˈɹɑɹd/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | Ged |
| Variant spellings | Gerrard |
| US babies named this | 58,932 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 58,820 / 112 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 715, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From Middle English Gerard, from Old French Gerart, from Frankish *Gaiʀahard, from *gaiʀ (“spear”) + *hard(ī) (“hard, brave”).

## What it means

Gerard is grouped under brave and sword.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1934 | 5 | 4,540 |
| 1941 | 5 | 4,653 |
| 1947 | 5 | 5,605 |
| 1952 | 9 | 3,922 |
| 1955 | 5 | 6,161 |
| 1958 | 5 | 6,409 |
| 1961 | 6 | 6,078 |
| 1962 | 8 | 5,010 |
| 1964 | 5 | 7,113 |
| 1965 | 5 | 6,857 |
| 1974 | 6 | 8,023 |
| 1976 | 7 | 7,558 |
| 1979 | 5 | 10,717 |
| 1986 | 8 | 7,984 |
| 1987 | 6 | 10,290 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 172 | 1,084 |
| 2012 | 171 | 1,091 |
| 2013 | 183 | 1,049 |
| 2014 | 202 | 1,013 |
| 2015 | 180 | 1,086 |
| 2016 | 160 | 1,186 |
| 2017 | 161 | 1,166 |
| 2018 | 149 | 1,241 |
| 2019 | 116 | 1,480 |
| 2020 | 119 | 1,456 |
| 2021 | 121 | 1,483 |
| 2022 | 128 | 1,428 |
| 2023 | 130 | 1,409 |
| 2024 | 115 | 1,534 |
| 2025 | 95 | 1,713 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 29 | 958 |
| 2012 | 30 | 962 |
| 2013 | 26 | 1,044 |
| 2014 | 27 | 1,035 |
| 2015 | 26 | 1,074 |
| 2016 | 31 | 946 |
| 2017 | 18 | 1,398 |
| 2018 | 23 | 1,158 |
| 2019 | 12 | 1,869 |
| 2020 | 21 | 1,230 |
| 2021 | 23 | 1,184 |
| 2022 | 16 | 1,534 |
| 2023 | 17 | 1,461 |
| 2024 | 15 | 1,675 |
| 2025 | 17 | 1,538 |

## In other languages

- Bulgarian: Ге́рхард, Дже́рард, Жера́р
- Catalan: Gerard
- Chinese: 傑勒德 /杰勒德
- Danish: Gerhard
- Dutch: Gerard
- Esperanto: Gerardo
- Estonian: Kert
- French: Gérard
- German: Gerhard
- Greek: Γεράρδος
- Hindi: जेरार्ड
- Hungarian: Gellért
- Irish: Gearóid
- Italian: Gerardo, Gherardo
- Latvian: Ģirts
- Portuguese: Gerardo
- Russian: Жера́р, Ге́рхард, Дже́ра́рд
- Spanish: Gerardo
- Swedish: Gerhard, Gert

## People named Gerard

- Gérard Depardieu, French actor (born 1948)
- Gerardus Mercator, Flemish geographer, cosmographer and cartographer (1512–1594)
- Gérard de Nerval, French writer, poet, essayist and translator (1808–1855)
- Gérard Philipe, French actor (1922-1959)
- Gérard Mourou, French physicist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physics 2018
- Gérard Debreu, French economist and mathematician (1921–2004)
- Gerard Way, American singer (born 1977)
- Gérard Desargues, French mathematician and engineer
- Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet (1844–1889)
- Gérard Houllier, French football manager (1947–2020)
- Gerard ter Borch, Dutch Golden Age painter (1617–1681)
- Gerard David, early Netherlandish painter (c. 1460–1523)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.